Paradise Lost: A Glimpse of Aleppo in the 20th Century

Introduction:
Up until September 2012, the historic old city of Aleppo had been spared the wanton destruction caused by Syria’s civil war. However, on 28 September 2012, fighting broke out between government forces and the rebels quickly spreading to the old city and the souk, believed to be the largest covered bazaar in the world. Within hours, the market was up in flames and over the course of the next few days more than a hundred shops were torched and portions of the medieval vaulted ceiling collapsed.

The Battle of Aleppo officially ended on 22 December 2016 when Syrian government forces recaptured the city’s eastern districts from rebel fighters after years of devastating urban warfare. That victory ushered in a period of relative calm during which the residents of Aleppo slowly began rebuilding their lives and restoring parts of their shattered city.

Yet that fragile reprieve ended abruptly eight years later, on 2 December 2024, when Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the country’s main opposition force, entered Aleppo and seized the Citadel and surrounding neighborhoods from government forces. Once again, Syria’s ancient commercial capital found itself thrust back into the uncertainty of conflict.

Today, Aleppo is once again on the mend. Despite the scars left by years of war, the city is experiencing a cautious revival as restoration projects slowly begin to repair the immense damage inflicted since the start of the civil war. Markets are reopening, historic buildings are being restored, and life is gradually returning to one of the Middle East’s oldest continuously inhabited cities.

I visited Aleppo on numerous occasions throughout the 1990s and 2000s, both for work and tourism, and few places left me with such a deep personal connection. The story below, Paradise Lost: Memories of Aleppo, reflects on my relationship with the city and is illustrated with photographs I made alongside early 20th-century images taken from similar vantage points. The vintage photographs, all from my personal archive, can also be viewed in the accompanying exhibition.